Browsing results for Peeters Bert († 2021)

(2015) French – Cultural values (DÉBROUILLE)

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.

Peeters, Bert (2015). La France de la débrouille: étude ethnoaxiologique d’une valeur culturelle hypothétique. RSP (Revue de sémantique et pragmatique), 37, 103-122.

(2015) Language and cultural values

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.

Peeters, Bert (Ed.) (2015). Language and cultural values: Adventures in applied ethnolinguistics. International Journal of Language and Culture, 2(2) (Special issue).

(2016) Cultural linguistics

Published on September 20, 2017. Last updated on September 16, 2018.

Peeters, Bert (2016). APPLIED ETHNOLINGUISTICS is cultural linguistics, but is it CULTURAL LINGUISTICS? International journal of language and culture, 3(2), 137-160. DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.3.2.01pee

Reprinted as:

Peeters, Bert (2017). APPLIED ETHNOLINGUISTICS is cultural linguistics, but is it CULTURAL LINGUISTICS? In Farzad Sharifian (Ed.), Advances in Cultural Linguistics (pp. 507-527). Singapore: Springer Nature. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-4056-6_23

Translated into Russian as:

Peeters, Bert (2017). ПРИКЛАДНАЯ ЭТНОЛИНГВИСТИКА – это лингвокультурология, но ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРОЛОГИЯ ли? Жанры речи [Zhanry rechi = Speech genres], 15, 37-50. DOI: 10.18500/2311-0740-2017-1-15-37-50

The label cultural linguistics has been used to refer either to a broad field of scientific endeavour — referred to as “cultural linguistics” (in lower case) — or to a more narrowly defined framework within that field — referred to as “CULTURAL LINGUISTICS” (in small capitals). The latter uses cultural conceptualizations (categories, metaphors, schemas, and models) to study aspects of cultural cognition and its instantiation in language. The term cultural value is used sparingly, and not at all in a technical sense. This, then, raises the question whether bridges can be built between CULTURAL LINGUISTICS and APPLIED ETHNOLINGUISTICS. The latter makes prolific use of the term cultural value, which it sees as fundamental to its endeavours.

Close scrutiny reveals that both frameworks do acknowledge the importance of cultural values: in CULTURAL LINGUISTICS, detailed study of culturally specific conceptualizations may lead to a more precise understanding of the cultural values upheld in particular language communities. Nonetheless, there seems to be little prospect for an amalgamation of the two frameworks. Rather, APPLIED ETHNOLINGUISTICS and CULTURAL LINGUISTICS are both part of the broader field of cultural linguistics, where they provide separate, but equally useful, methodologies for the study of language and cultural values.


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(2017) French (L2) – Stance-taking

Published on June 23, 2017. Last updated on November 5, 2021.

Peeters, Bert (2017). Du bon usage des stéréotypes en cours de FLE: le cas de l’ethnolinguistique appliquée [Making good use of stereotypes in the French foreign language classroom: the case of applied ethnolinguistics]. Dire, 9, 43-60. http://epublications.unilim.fr/revues/dire/816.

Written in French.

The stereotypes envisaged in this paper serve as a starting point for a research protocol aimed at corroborating the reality, in French languaculture, of the cultural value of stance-taking. The protocol adopted here is part of a research paradigm called applied ethnolinguistics, elaborated for use with and by foreign language students whose linguistic competence is sufficiently advanced to enable them to use their language resources to discover, through essentially (but not uniquely) linguistic means, the cultural values typically associated with the languaculture they study. Since the posited values are hypothetical, corroboration will be required. A specific protocol (the one illustrated here) has been set aside for this purpose. The cultural value of stance-taking will be presented in the form of a pedagogical script expressed in minimal French, a descriptive tool based on the French version of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Precautions are taken to ensure that end-users of such scenarios are aware that they are dealing with generalizations (which are unavoidable as languacultures are never homogeneous).

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(2018) English, French – (WHITE) LIES, (PIEUX) MENSONGES

Published on August 18, 2018. Last updated on August 31, 2018.

Peeters, Bert (2018). (White) lies and (pieux) mensonges: Ethnolinguistic elaborations on not telling the truth. Etnolingwistyka, 30, 169-188. DOI: 10.17951/et.2018.30.169. PDF (open access)

The fact that most European languages have a word similar to the verb lie has led many to believe that lying is a universal cognitive category, that all human beings have an intuitive understanding of what it means to lie, and that all forms of discourse involving a lack of truth can be analysed as forms of lying, wherever they occur. This is a myth. Within Europe itself, there are differences, and these become more outspoken once we move further away. Even a Melanesian creole such as Bislama, in spite of being English-based, has no strict equivalent to the verb lie; the closest it gets is by means of the verb giaman, which, unlike lie, refers to a fairly common, sometimes even a necessary course of action.

On the other hand, whereas, at least from an Anglo point of view, lying is mostly felt to be morally reprehensible, there are instances that are not as straightforward. In English, lies that are deemed less bad than others are often referred to as white lies. Other terms exist, but this one is by far the commonest and has a high degree of cultural salience. Does the concept exist in other languages, e.g. French? The phrase pieux mensonge comes to mind. White lies and pieux mensonges are shown to be overlapping categories, but carry different connotations, which are spelled out using a tool known as the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.


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(2018) Narrative Medicine

Published on November 19, 2017. Last updated on August 21, 2018.

Peeters, Bert, & Marini, Maria Giulia (2018). Narrative Medicine across languages and cultures: Using Minimal English for increased comparability of patients’ narratives. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Minimal English for a global world: Improved communication using fewer words (pp. 259-286). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-62512-6_11

Narrative medicine is an approach to medicine which seeks to combine with and enhance conventional evidence-based medicine by adding perspectives and experience in medical humanities. The chapter expounds on the importance of effective communication with patients and in particular on the importance of having some structured protocols (scripts, interview prompts, and the like) to encourage more comprehensive and effective patient narratives and to allow for increased comparability between them. It tells the story of an emerging collaboration with Minimal English and an international pilot study applying Minimal English to such protocols.

Appendix A reproduces the new Narrative Medicine storyline, written in Minimal Italian and in Minimal English.


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(2019) English – Ethnopsychology and personhood

Published on May 4, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.

Peeters, Bert (2019). The English ethnopsychological personhood construct mind “deconstructed” in universally intelligible words. Critical studies in languages and literature, 1(1), 61-77.

Open access

Abstract:

The dominance of English as the international lingua franca has led to rampant Anglocentrism and the reification of concepts that are in fact culture-specific. One such concept, often thought to refer to a universal human ‘attribute’, is the ethnopsychological personhood construct mind. This paper argues that the best weapon to combat Anglocentrism is the English language itself — or rather, a metalanguage such as NSM based on what English shares with all other languages of the world. The paper shows how far NSM practitioners have come in their efforts to demonstrate that the word mind is a cultural construct that has nothing universal about it and that cannot be used to define the ethnopsychological personhood constructs of other languages. Instead, it is just as culture-specific as any other ethnopsychological personhood construct and does not deserve any special status.

More information:

This paper builds on:

Peeters, Bert (2019). Delving into heart- and soul-like constructs: Describing EPCs in NSM. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 1-29). New York: Routledge.

The DOIs quoted on the journal’s web site and in the PDF are incorrect [20 June 2019].

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(2019) Ethnopsychology and personhood

Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.

Peeters, Bert (2019). Delving into heart- and soul-like constructs: Describing EPCs in NSM. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 1-29). New York: Routledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670-1

Abstract:

This introduction to a collection of four thematically related studies addresses the perennial problem of Anglocentrism and reification in scholarly discourse, where English continues to set the tone and its constructs continue to be used as yardsticks in the description of cultural diversity, thereby elevating the English language to a status it does not deserve, no matter how important it may be on a world scale. Use of NSM is put forward as a way out of the problem. In addition, to illustrate the idea that “every explication is an experiment”, the author reconstructs the various stages that explications of the English ethnopsychological personhood construct mind have gone through since the first attempt was made in the late 1980s.

More information:

A more recent publication building on this one is:

Peeters, Bert (2019). The English ethnopsychological personhood construct mind “deconstructed” in universally intelligible words. Critical studies in languages and literature, 1(1), 61-77.

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(2019) Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs [BOOK]

Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.

Peeters, Bert (Ed.) (2019). Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs. New York: Routledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670

Abstract:

All languages and cultures appear to have one or more ‘mind-like’ constructs that supplement the human body. Linguistic evidence suggests they all have a word for someone, and another word for body, but that does not mean that whatever else makes up a human being (i.e. someone) apart from the body is the same everywhere. Nonetheless, the (Anglo) mind is often reified and thought of in universal terms. This volume adds to the literature that denounces such reification. It looks at Japanese, Longgu (an Oceanic language), Thai, and Old Norse-Icelandic, spelling out, in NSM, how the ‘mind-like’ constructs in these languages differ from the Anglo mind.

Table of contents:

  1. Delving into heart- and soul-like constructs: Describing EPCs in NSM (Bert Peeters)
  2. Inochi and tamashii: Incursions into Japanese ethnopsychology (Yuko Asano-Cavanagh)
  3. Longgu: Conceptualizing the human person from the inside out (Deborah Hill)
  4. Tracing the Thai ‘heart’: The semantics of a Thai ethnopsychological construct (Chavalin Svetanant)
  5. Exploring Old Norse-Icelandic personhood constructs with the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (Colin Mackenzie)

Each chapter has its own entry, where additional information is provided.

Reviewed by:

Marini, Maria Giulia (2019). thepolyphony.org

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(2020) Cèmuhî – Cultural key words

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Peeters, Bert; Lecompte-Van Poucke, Margo (2020). Bwénaado: an ethnolexicological study of a culturally salient word in Cèmuhî (New Caledonia). In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 123-148). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_7

Abstract:

Ever since people have come together in communities, they have felt the need to regulate and control their relationships with members of other groups. One way of building and maintaining a stable society is by sharing wealth. New Caledonia has developed its own unique system of exchange, referred to as la coutume by its French-speaking inhabitants and by the Melanesian part of the population, which also uses indigenous terms that have relatively high cultural visibility and can thus be considered culturally salient. This paper focuses on one such word, bwénaado, and aims to demonstrate that it reflects an important cultural value in Cèmuhî, an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 3300 people dispersed along the north-east coast and in the valleys of New Caledonia’s rugged interior. To the best of our knowledge, no detailed treatment of bwénaado exists. Our semantic analysis therefore breaks new ground. Three different meanings of the word (roughly, ‘large-scale customary celebration’, ‘customary ceremony’ and ‘customary gift’) are distinguished. It will be argued that, even though the Kanak social exchange system (in which all three meanings are highly relevant) seems to be linked to a universal principle of reciprocity, it is highly culture-specific. To ensure utmost respect for this cultural specificity and to break out of the prison walls of the English language, NSM will be used to frame the description, and applied ethnolinguistics will form the backdrop against which the description is carried out.

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(2020) Cultural key words

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Peeters, Bert (2020). Culture is everywhere! In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 1-14). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_1

Abstract:

This introductory chapter to the second of three volumes celebrating the career of Griffith University academic Cliff Goddard recaps the fundamentals of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, which is explicitly adopted by all contributors to this volume (Sect. 1.2), then contextualizes and introduces the individual papers (Sects. 1.3 and 1.4).

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(2020) English, Australian Aboriginal English, Bislama – Shame

Published on November 22, 2020. Last updated on November 22, 2020.

Peeters, Bert (2020). Language Makes a Difference: Breaking the Barrier of Shame. Lublin Studies in Modern Language and Literature,  44(1), 27-37.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2020.44.1.27-37 (Open Access)

Abstract:
This paper argues against the reification of shame and the use of Anglocentric jargon to explain what it entails. It shows how the Natural Semantic Metalanguage can be used to define shame and set it apart from related concepts in Australian Aboriginal English and in Bislama, an English creole spoken in Vanuatu.

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(2020) Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication [BOOK, vol. 1]

Published on November 15, 2019. Last updated on January 15, 2022.

Mullan, Kerry; Peeters, Bert; & Sadow, Lauren (Eds.) (2020). Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis. Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2

Abstract:

This book is the first in a three-volume set that celebrates the career and achievements of Cliff Goddard, a pioneer of the NSM approach in linguistics. It explores issues in ethnopragmatics and conversational humour, with a further focus on semantic analysis more broadly.

Table of contents [NSM chapters only]:

2. A brief introduction to the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach (Lauren Sadow & Kerry Mullan)

Part I. Ethnopragmatics

3. Condolences in Cantonese and English: What people say and why (John C. Wakefield, Winnie Chor, & Nikko Lai)
4. The ethnopragmatics of English understatement and Italian exaggeration: Clashing cultural scripts for the expression of personal opinions (Gian Marco Farese)
5. Ethnopragmatics of hāzer javābi, a valued speech practice in Persian (Reza Arab)
6. “The Great Australian Pastime”: Pragmatic and semantic perspectives on taking the piss (Michael Haugh & Lara Weinglass)
7. Thứ-Bậc (‘hierarchy’) in the cultural logic of Vietnamese interaction: An ethnopragmatic perspective (Lien-Huong Vo)

Part II. Semantic analysis

10. Positive appraisal in online news comments (Radoslava Trnavac & Maite Taboada)
11. The conceptual semantics of alienable possession in Amharic (Mengistu Amberber)
12. The meanings of list constructions: Explicating interactional polysemy (Susanna Karlsson)

More information:

Each chapter will soon have its own entry, where additional information is provided.

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(2020) Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication [BOOK, vol. 2]

Published on November 15, 2019. Last updated on August 19, 2021.

Peeters, Bert; Mullan, Kerry; & Sadow, Lauren (Eds.) (2020). Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture. Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7

Abstract:

This book is the second in a three-volume set that celebrates the career and achievements of Cliff Goddard, a pioneer of the NSM approach in linguistics. It focuses on meaning and culture, with sections on words as carriers of cultural meaning and understanding discourse in cultural context.

Table of contents: 

1. Culture is everywhere! (Bert Peeters)

Part I. Words as carriers of cultural meaning

2. In staunch pursuit: the semantics of the Japanese terms shūkatsu ‘job hunting’ and konkatsu ‘marriage partner hunting’ (Yuko Asano-Cavanagh & Gian Marco Farese)
3. Cultural keywords in Porteño Spanish: viveza criolla, vivo and boludo (Jan Hein)
4. The “Aussie” bogan: an occasioned semantics analysis (Roslyn Rowen)
5. The comfort of home as an ethical value in Mike Packer’s Inheritance (Stella Butter & Zuzanna Bułat Silva)
6. Common Akan insults on GhanaWeb: a semantic analysis of kwasea, aboa and gyimii (Rachel Thompson)
7. Bwénaado: an ethnolexicological study of a culturally salient word in Cèmuhî (New Caledonia) (Bert Peeters & Margo Lecompte-Van Poucke)
8. Heaven and hell are here! The non-religious meanings of English heaven and hell and their Arabic and Hebrew counterparts (Sandy Habib)

Part II. Understanding discourse in cultural context

9. Postcolonial prepositions: semantics and popular geopolitics in the Danosphere (Carsten Levisen)
10. Combining NSM explications for clusters of Cantonese utterance particles: laa3-wo3 and zaa3-wo3 (Helen Hue Lam Leung)

More information:

Each chapter has its own entry, where additional information is provided.

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(2020) Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication [BOOK, vol. 3]

Published on November 15, 2019. Last updated on January 10, 2022.

Sadow, Lauren; Peeters, Bert; & Mullan, Kerry (Eds.) (2020). Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9979-5

Abstract:

This book is the third in a three-volume set that celebrates the career and achievements of Cliff Goddard, a pioneer of the NSM approach in linguistics. This third volume explores the potential of Minimal English, a recent offshoot of NSM, with special reference to its use in language teaching and intercultural communication.

Table of contents: 

1. Minimal English: Taking NSM ‘out of the lab’ (Lauren Sadow)
2. Using NSM and “Minimal” Language for intercultural learning (Susana S. Fernández)
3. From Expensive English to Minimal English (Deborah Hill)
4. “There is no sex in the Soviet Union”: From sex to seks (Anna Wierzbicka & Anna Gladkova)
5. When value words cross cultural borders: English tolerant versus Russian tolerantnyj (Anna Gladkova)
6. The confounding Mandarin colour term ‘qīng’: Green, blue, black or all of the above and more? (Jiashu Tao & Jock Wong)
7. Semantic challenges in understanding Global English: Hypothesis, theory, and proof in Singapore English (Jock Wong)
8. Using Minimal English to model a parental understanding of autism (Alexander Forbes)
9. Principles and prototypes of a cultural dictionary of Australian English for learners (Lauren Sadow)
10. Minimal and inverse definitions: A semi-experimental proposal for compiling a Spanish dictionary with semantic primes and molecules (María Auxiliadora Barrios Rodríguez)
11. Prevalence of NSM primes in easy-to-read and standard Finnish: Findings from newspaper text corpora (Ulla Vanhatalo & Camilla Lindholm)

More information:

Each chapter has its own entry, where additional information is provided.

Review:

Gladkova, Anna. (2020). Review of Sadow, Lauren, Bert Peeters, and Kerry Mullan (eds.). 2020. Studies in Ethnopragmatics, Cultural Semantics, and Intercultural Communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond). Singapore: Springer. ISBN 978‐981‐329‐978‐8 Russian Journal of Linguistics, 24(4). pp. 1049—1054

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(2021) English, French, Russian – Pedagogical scripts

Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.

Peeters, Bert (2021). From Cultural to Pedagogical Scripts: Speaking Out in English, French, and Russian. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 171-193

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_7

 


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(2021) French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, English — Pain, headaches, syntax

Published on January 15, 2022. Last updated on January 17, 2022.

Sadow, Lauren, and Peeters, Bert. (2021). “J’ai mal à la tête” and analogous phrases in Romance languages and in English [« J’ai mal à la tête et expressions analogues dans les langues romanes et en anglais »], Cahiers de lexicologie, n° 119, 2021 – 2, Lexique et corps humain, p. 207-233

DOI : 10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-12812-0.p.0207

Written in English

Résumé

L’existence de constructions syntaxiques différentes pour des phrases ayant le un sens similaire n’est pas le fruit du hasard. Nous utiliserons la métalangue sémantique naturelle pour expliquer les différentes constructions des “expressions de céphalées” courantes en français, italien, espagnol, roumain et anglais. Les explications permettront de mieux comprendre comment les locuteurs conceptualisent leurs maux de tête au quotidien, et comment leur choix de syntaxe modifie le sens de l’expression.

Abstract

The existence of different syntactic configurations for phrases with similar meanings is not by chance. In this paper, we will use the natural semantic metalanguage to offer explications for the different syntactic constructions of common “headache phrases” in French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, English. The explications will allow us to better understand how the speakers of each language conceptualize their day-to-day headaches, and how their choice of syntax changes the expression’s meaning.

 


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